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According to Chicago folklore, Mayor Richard J. Daley (father of the current mayor) called architect Charles F. Murphy in 1967 while McCormick Place was still burning. "Charlie" the mayor said, "start drawing." Murphy's firm--then known as C.F. Murphy and now Murphy/Jahn (M/J)--did get the commission to rebuild the convention center. Gene Summers was hired to design the project, and he brought along his 27-year-old assistant, Helmut Jahn.
Murphy/Jahn was named Firm of the Year by the AIA for 2005. In two years, the office will celebrate its 70th anniversary. Since 1982, it has been under the sole proprietorship and determined leadership of Helmut Jahn.
The firm's roots in Chicago are deep (Charles Murphy worked in Daniel Burnham's office during the last year of his life), and it has contributed significant work to Chicago, providing it with some of the tough, muscular buildings for which the city is justly famous. To name two, there is McCormick Place (1970), with its massive, 19-acre roof and unique support structure; and the 1965 Richard J. Daley Center, with its 87-foot-long bays. The office continued to be the mayor's favorite and win plum jobs from the city, among them O'Hare Airport. In those days, M/J gave Skidmore, Owings & Merrill's Chicago office a run for its money even as it constructed the 100-story John Hancock Tower.
As Murphy/Jahn, the office's reach is global: In addition to the U.S., it...